With recent developments in wireless communication, use of wireless communication devices has become almost ubiquitous. These wireless devices include laptop computers, tablet computers, smart phones, as well as plethora of other wireless devices (car navigation devices, user-wearable navigation devices, and the like). Most, if not all, wireless devices are equipped with geo-position devices (for example, those using GPS technology for determining geo position of the wireless device, those using triangulation techniques, or the like).
Most of these wireless devices are further equipped with mapping and/or navigation applications (jointly referred herein below as a map application). A typical navigation application provides maps of various regions and allows a user to navigate through them. For example, the user can use the navigation application to request directions from the user's position to a Points of Interest (POI). In response, the navigation application will provide the user with one or more possible routes and will guide the user to the POI via one of the routes by providing turn-by-turn driving instructions via a graphical user interface (GUI).
Typically, when a user conducts a search for a POI via a prior art navigation application, the prior art navigation application returns a plurality of results which it presents to the user as a plurality of POI objects, such as pins, representative of the results (POIs) laid out on a map in the GUI. Generally speaking, a POI object is any object that can be overlaid by a map application over the map in the GUI, and which represents the location of a corresponding POI and to which location the user of the electronic device may drive, walk, or commute to using the map application. Examples of POIs include: cities, particular addresses, museums, shopping centers, banks, parks, statutes, government buildings, historical buildings, and the like.
The prior art navigation application then requires the user to look over the POI objects to find a POI to which they want to navigate. To allow the user to do this, the typical prior art navigation application implemented on an electronic device with a touchscreen detects when the user taps on a given one of the POI objects and in response to the tap, brings up information about the POI represented by the given POI object and also brings up what are typically labelled as a “GO” button and a cancel button.
The typical prior art navigation application then requires the user to review the information about the POI represented by the given POI object to determine if that POI is of interest. In cases where it is not, the prior art navigation application requires the user to tap over the cancel button to hide the presented information and then to further review the POI objects on the map and to tap over a next given one of the POI objects. The prior art navigation application detects this subsequent tap and in response brings up information about the POI corresponding to the next one of the POI objects as well as the “GO” and cancel buttons for that next POI object. The prior art navigation application then, again, requires the user to review the information about that next POI to determine if it is of interest.
Once the user finds a desired POI, the prior art navigation application then detects the user's tap over the “GO” button. In response, the prior art navigation application builds a route and starts directing the user to that POI. While the prior art navigation application is guiding the user to that POI, the prior art navigation application can allow the user to search for additional POIs on or off route. For example, where the prior art navigation application is guiding the user from one city to another, the prior art navigation application can display POI objects over the map which are representative of gas stations along or near the route. In such a case, the typical prior art navigation application requires the user to go through a process similar to the initial review of POI search results as described herein above.
That is, the prior art navigation application presents a plurality of POI objects and requires the user to look over them and tap over select ones to find one of interest. Once the additional POI is found, the prior art navigation application typically brings up a menu with two additional buttons. One of the additional buttons asks the user whether they would like to make that additional POI a new destination. The other one of the additional buttons asks the user whether they would like to add that additional POI as a “stop” point on the existing route. The prior art navigation application then detects a tap over one of these buttons and correspondingly either creates a new route or alters the existing route and provides a corresponding new set of driving/walking/commuting directions (as applicable) and a new estimated time of arrival (ETA) to that POI.
For cases where the user then decides that the new or modified route is not desirable and/or simply wishes to find a further different POI to navigate to, the prior art navigation application can detect an additional tap over the map and can in response bring up a cancel button to allow the user to cancel that route. The prior art navigation application then requires the user to go through the same procedure as described herein above in order to discern a new POI out of a plurality of presented potential POIs and to start navigating to that new POI.